Rangers end 5-game losing streak by edging Canadiens 4-3 on Kaapo Kakko’s late goal
The New York Rangers ended their five-game losing streak when Kaapo Kakko scored a power-play goal with 24 seconds remaining for a 4-3 victory against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday at Madison Square Garden in the opener of a five-game homestand.
Montreal trailed 3-1 entering the third period but made it a one-goal game when Cole Caufield scored at 4:16 and tied it 3-3 at 14:07 when Nick Suzuki, who set up Caufield’s goal, took a pass from defenseman Mike Matheson and put the puck into a half-empty net. Both goals came after the Rangers were unable to clear the zone, a problem for much of the afternoon.
The Rangers were hanging on for dear life until Montreal’s Kirby Dach was assessed a double minor for high-sticking Mika Zibanejad with 2:40 to play. They generated almost nothing for more than two minutes until Will Cuylle controlled the puck in the slot and made a behind-the-back pass to Kakko, who whipped a quick shot past Sam Montembeault for the Rangers’ third power-play goal of the game to earn their 1,700th home victory since entering the NHL in 1926.
“Not our best performance,” forward Artemi Panarin said, “but right now, we needed something.”
It was a big day for the power play, which got a boost from the return of Chris Kreider from a bout of back spasms that cost him three games. Jonathan Quick made 25 saves for his 398th NHL win, the most by any U.S.-born goalie. He won for the fifth time in his six starts. The Rangers also played with the kind of feistiness they rarely exhibited during their slide, especially during a docile 3-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday.
Panarin and Mika Zibanejad each had a goal and an assist to lead the offense, which also got a goal from Vincent Trocheck.
For most of the day, the Rangers, who also got No. 3 center Filip Chytil back after he missed seven games with an upper-body injury, looked much more like the team that started the season 5-0-1 than the one that was 7-9-0 in the next 16 games, including five losses in a nine-day span.
It was far from a perfect effort – the Canadiens had a 15-6 edge in high-danger chances at 5-on-5, including 10-3 in the second period, according to Natural Stat Trick, and there were far too many defensive breakdowns, especially in the third period. But there was definitely a lot more life in the Rangers after a lifeless performance in Philadelphia 24 hours earlier.
“Sometimes when you’re trying to get out of something, that first one that you get out of might not be the prettiest,” coach Peter Laviolette said. “It wasn’t tonight. We have to draw on the positives of what we were able to do from the physicality at the start, the fact that we kicked it up, we came back and we won it. Specialty teams factored into it. I think you just pull all those things out of it and just continue to work your way out.”
They did just that.
Related: Here’s what made Dave Maloney’s ‘blood boil’ in Rangers’ 4-3 loss to Flyers
New York Rangers 4 – Montreal Canadiens 3
The Rangers came out with the kind of energy they rarely showed during the losing streak. Captain Jacob Trouba sent a message to his team when he engaged in a lengthy fight with Montreal forward Josh Anderson 1:50 after the opening face-off, and the Rangers controlled play for most of the first half of the period.
“He’s our leader,” Kakko said. “It was something we needed. We’ve been pretty bad lately.”
After earning just 12 power plays (and failing to convert on any of them) in their previous eight games, the Rangers got two in a minute when Emil Heineman was called for holding Kreider at 7:22 and Matheson was sent off at 8:22 when his clearing attempt went over the glass for a delay of game penalty. They capitalized on the 5-on-3 advantage at 9:02 when Panarin ripped a shot from above the left circle that Montembeault never saw because of Kreider’s screen for a 1-0 lead.
But the Canadiens needed just 2:45 to tie the game. After Montreal hemmed the Rangers in their own zone for the better part of a minute, Brendan Gallagher found Matheson alone in the middle of the offensive zone, and he fired a wrister from the high slot past Quick at 11:47 to make it 1-1.
The Rangers killed off two Montreal power plays before taking a 2-1 lead with 2.3 seconds left in the period. Trocheck scored for the second time in as many days when he got a piece of Alexis Lafreniere’s long wrister and deflected it past Montembeault.
New York limited the Canadiens to seven shots in the opening period; the Rangers had allowed at least 13 first-period shots in each of the five losses during the streak.
Montreal came out with more jump in the second and forced Quick to make three saves in the first 30 seconds, including two in-close on Alex Newhook. The Rangers also had to kill a third Montreal power play after Sam Carrick was sent off for unsportsmanlike conduct at 2:26 for going back at Arber Xhekaj for a hit on Lafreniere. Quick came up big again midway through the period when Dach and Joshua Roy had good chances during a scramble.
Anderson took a needless roughing penalty at 16:14, and the Rangers made them pay at 17:03 when Zibanejad got his fifth goal of the season and first on the power play. He took a feed from Panarin above the left circle, slid a stride or two toward the slot and rifled a wrist shot that went past Montembeault, who again had Kreider screening him.
The Rangers got another power play after a scrum involving all 10 skaters and Quick resulted in the Canadiens getting the extra roughing minor. Unlike Friday, when Panarin’s teammates made no effort to get involved after he was jabbed by the Flyers’ Travis Konecny, all five Rangers came to the aid of their goaltender in a scrum that lasted several minutes.
But the Rangers couldn’t convert on the opportunity, and the Canadiens got within one goal at 4:16. Suzuki kept the puck in at the blue line and quickly fed Caufield in the left circle for a quick shot that got through Quick to make it 3-2. They tied it with 5:53 left in regulation when Suzuki converted a pass from Matheson after the Rangers again could not clear the zone.
But the Rangers did something they haven’t done enough of recently. They found a way. And Kakko’s late goal was the difference.
Looking for a second straight win, the Rangers continue their homestand Monday when they take up in class and host the New Jersey Devils.
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